Pork Recipes

Sucking Pig

In the countryside of Romania, where old traditions die hard, Christmas centres round folk singing and dancing, church going and orgies of eating. Pork is the favourite meat and comes in a vast variety of smoked hams and sausages, and as stuffing for cabbage. Sucking pig and lamb are spit-roasted over an open fire and are traditionally served with roasted aubergines. In Romania, feasting continues until New Year and is then followed by a short period of strict fasting which continues until January 6th.

6 persons

4 hours50 minutes

20 minutes

4 hours30 minutes

{tab Ingredients}

4.5 kilogram Sucking Pig

300 ml Rum

300 ml Olive Oil

2 tablespoons Salt

{tab Instructions}

If oven space permits, truss the prepared piglet with the legs stretched out, or fold them underneath the belly.

Insert a wooden plug in the mouth, and protect the tail and ears with foil.

Mix the rum and oil and brush it all over the piglet.

Rub the salt into the skin.

Place the piglet on a rack in a large roasting tin and cook on the lower shelf of an oven pre-heated to 160°C.

Allow 25 minutes to each 450 grams.

Baste every 15 minutes with more rum and oil.

When cooked, remove the foil and replace the wooden plug with a rosy apple.

To carve, cut off the head with the forelegs, and then the rear portion and legs.

Slit along and through the backbone, remove the rib cage and carve the meat and crackling into narrow slices.